Hunter Biden ‘laptop from hell’ scandal turns 4: How media, intelligence community misled Americans

Hunter Biden’s scandalous laptop - falsely dismissed as Russian disinformation – became part of the American lexicon four years ago today, on October 14, 2020, kicking off a years-long scandal with big tech, corporate media and the intelligence community.

"I think that virtually every single mainstream outlet disgraced themselves," former New York Post deputy politics editor Emma-Jo Morris told Fox News Digital.

While at the New York Post, Morris first reported on Hunter Biden’s personal computer, which eventually was dubbed the "laptop from hell" by the paper’s staffers. The infamous laptop was filled with shocking videos and photos of drug use, lewd sex acts, and sensitive business communications. It was exposed by the Post only a few weeks before then-candidate Joe Biden was set to square off against then-President Trump. 

In an unprecedented act of uniformed censorship, the bombshell Post report was essentially buried by Big Tech and the mainstream press, silencing an "October surprise" that many feel could have swung the election. 

HUNTER BIDEN LAPTOP RE-EMERGES AS MEDIA EMBARRASSMENT AS IT BECOMES KEY EVIDENCE AT GUN TRIAL

Twitter, claiming the story violated its terms of service on hacked materials, locked the New York Post out of its account for weeks and even blocked users from sharing the story link. MSNBC, CNN, CBS, NPR, Washington Post, The New York Times and a variety of other outlets and social media platforms either pushed the since-debunked "Russian disinformation" narrative or ignored the story altogether. 

Morris, who had the lead byline on the initial bombshell report, feels the "multiple scandals" that erupted following her story forever changed the trajectory of tech and media in America. 

"It definitely did change… the trajectory of the tech history because first of all, obviously, the most glaring example is that… the trust on Twitter was completely collapsed… it led Elon Musk to buy the platform," Morris said.

"Now that he has acquired Twitter, it's completely changed the ability for censors to operate because he is just not playing ball with them," she continued. "And Twitter is obviously, which was why this was so scandalous during the time of laptop censorship, Twitter is the main feeder for the rest of media." 

FLASHBACK: MSNBC, CNN, CBS TOLD VIEWERS HUNTER BIDEN LAPTOP STORY WAS RUSSIAN DISINFORMATION

The Russian disinformation narrative stemmed in part from an open letter penned by 51 former intel officials, several of whom endorsed Joe Biden for president that year, who declared that the laptop had "all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation." The open letter quickly went viral and was parroted by Biden supporters, including his then-future White House press secretary Jen Psaki, who is now an MSNBC host.

"These people took the word of spies and completely misled the American public, either wittingly or unwittingly. I'm not sure which one is worse," Morris said. 

Biden was quick to cite the letter during a 2020 presidential debate when he called claims the laptop was authentic "a bunch of garbage" and only believed by then-President Trump and his allies. 

Morris says she got into journalism to help Americans have "some sort of check on power and on tyranny," but the laptop censorship made her realize something critical. She noted the scandal was eye-opening because she realized corporate America has so much clout that tech and media companies were approached by the intelligence community to do their bidding. 

"Who was the central focal point of the corruption here? It was corporations. It was Big Tech and corporate media," Morris said. 

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Morris feels there was never real accountability for the people who pushed the bogus narrative that the "laptop from hell" was Russian disinformation even though people following the saga "learned so much" through investigations by journalists and Congress. 

"The real sin in all of this was the collaboration between social media, legacy media and the intelligence community," Morris said. 

"Nobody apologized, and I don't mean apologized… to their readers and their listeners," Morris continued. "Not a single one."

Morris’ initial Post story centered on a 2015 email from a Ukrainian energy executive to Hunter Biden, thanking him for introducing him to his father, that it had obtained from the hard drive of the laptop. Joe Biden was vice president at the time of the message, and his son then enjoyed a lucrative position on the board of Burisma, a Ukrainian energy firm, raising concerns of an attempted influence-peddling scheme.

The laptop, which was allegedly dropped off at a repair shop in 2019 by its owner and never recovered, was absolutely authentic and has since been not only confirmed by the FBI, but also by the media that previously insisted it was Russian disinformation. 

Morris feels The New York Times was the most egregious of the corporate media bad actors, because the Gray Lady dismissed it as "Russian disinformation" until subtly confirming it years later as a throwaway line buried deep in a story about Hunter Biden's taxes. 

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Others believe NPR was the most ridiculous, as its managing editor insisted, "We don’t want to waste our time on stories that are not really stories, and we don’t want to waste the listeners’ and readers’ time on stories that are just pure distractions," when declaring the taxpayer-funded outlet wouldn't cover the laptop.

Media Research Center executive editor Tim Graham believes the laptop ordeal offered unwavering proof that the media is largely partisan. 

"Everything that's happened since the last election - the timid admission from some newspapers and networks in 2022 that the laptop was real, and the extremely slow and feckless federal prosecution of Hunter - only underline that the media values being reliable to the Democrats ahead of being reliable to the public," Graham told Fox News Digital. 

"The legacy media don't believe in holding Democrats accountable. Incuriosity is their most shameful trait," he continued. "They heard of someone who was reserving a share of Hunter's Chinese millions for the ‘Big Guy,’ and didn't want to know if the president was the ‘Big Guy.’" 

FROM 'SMEAR CAMPAIGN' TO 'RUSSIAN DISINFORMATION,' LIBERAL MEDIA TEAMED UP TO DISMISS HUNTER BIDEN STORY

In one of the most memorable media moments regarding the bombshell story, Trump appeared on CBS’ "60 Minutes" shortly after the story emerged and called the laptop "one of the biggest scandals" he had ever seen. But interviewer Lesley Stahl was insistent that there was no way to conclude the laptop, or its contents, were real. 

Stahl’s employer, CBS News, confirmed in 2022 via its own forensic investigation that the laptop and its contents were legitimate. The admission prompted many Trump allies to vilify "60 Minutes" and Stahl to this day. 

The ordeal has continued to haunt "60 Minutes." The long-running CBS program recently suggested Trump wouldn’t appear on the show for another interview without an apology regarding the Stahl interview. 

Graham believes "60 Minutes" should admit that Stahl was wrong when she insisted the laptop couldn’t be verified. 

"CBS never followed up or apologized. Because they're shamelessly partisan," Graham said. 

CBS NEWS VERIFIES HUNTER BIDEN’S SCANDALOUS LAPTOP TWO YEARS AFTER DISMISSING IT

DePauw University journalism professor Jeffrey McCall believes the laptop ordeal is one of the reasons why news consumers around the nation have so little confidence in the media these days.

"In retrospect, it is clear now that the establishment media tried to impact the 2020 election by consciously omitting coverage of the Hunter Biden laptop story," McCall told Fox News Digital. 

He noted that the "minimal coverage" it received focused on the former intelligence officials who falsely claimed the laptop was bogus. 

"So, we had the almost unbelievable situation in which the mainstream media dismissed something that was true, yet promoted something that was false. And these decisions were not just mistakes that can occasionally happen in journalism. They were intentional decisions to alter the public sphere for political purposes," McCall said. 

"Sadly, the establishment media continue to want to be political activists in the 2024 election cycle. The performances of network debate moderators demonstrate the activist mindset of these news organizations," he continued. "The ongoing coverup of Biden's cognitive decline earlier this year can now be viewed as journalistic malpractice. CBS' controversial editing of Harris' ‘60 Minutes’ interview is yet another indication of the media's manipulation of election narratives."

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Morris, who knew the laptop was authentic from the jump when she broke the story in the first place, thinks many Americans still believe the debunked narratives. 

"There are Americans who are so propagandized by a media that is so corrupt… I think that there are still some people who, unfortunately, never really got the memo," she said. 

Fox News Digital’s Nikolas Lanum, Gabriel Hays, David Rutz and Joseph A. Wulfsohn contributed to this report.